Jean Victor Marie Moreau was born in 1763 in Morlaix (Brittany, France). His father, Gabriel Louis Moreau (1730-1794), a desperate royalist, married Catherine Chaperon (1730-1775), who came from a well-known corsair's family.
The exact date when Jean Victor Moreau was born is unknown. All that remains is a certificate of his baptism, which indicates the date - February 14, 1763. From this we can conclude that the child, who was given the name Jean-Victor-Marie, was born either on the same day, or a couple of days before this date. The Catholic rites of that time meant the Sacrament of Baptism on the same day that the child was born. Sometimes the term was extended to a week, but, given the serious religiosity of the Moro family, biographers are inclined to believe that Moro's mother and father were not delayed with baptism.
The Moreau family was very large. Over her short life, Catherine gave birth to many children, some of whom died in infancy. Jean Victor Marie was the eldest son of Gabriel and Catherine Moreau.
Law Education
According to contemporaries, and biographers, in the family in which Jean Victor grew up, he had no choice but to become a lawyer or civil servant. His father, who was a hereditary civil servant and judge in Morlaix, also reasoned and sent his son to law college in 1773, when Jean was 10 years old.
In 1775, Catherine Moreau rested, and Gabrielle begins to spend a large amount of money to help the poor. Jean remains in college and in 1780 graduates from it, having received the necessary education. There is an opinion that, not yet graduating from college, Jean Victor fled to the army, but his father bought it from there and made a decision to force him to learn law again.
After college, despite the resistance of his son, Gabriel Louis sends him to the University of Rennes.
But at the University of Law, the future general Jean Victor Moreau (date of birth not indicated in the sources) managed to read works on tactics and strategy. Of course, such a “double life” could not but affect his successes in mastering the legal sciences, so Moreau stayed at the university, finishing it only in 1790. Despite the dubious successes in the sciences, Jean was not equal in discipline, therefore, he is appointed a disciplinary headman.
General of the Parliament. First recognition of leadership talent
When in 1788 the Rennes Parliament refused to register royal decrees abrogating exemptions for Brittany, and he was surrounded by the military, Jean Moreau, as a warden, gathered students and drove the troops away from the Parliament building.
January 27, 1789 Moreau again gathers and equips about 400 students to repulse the bourgeois who again besieged the parliament building. It was these events that marked the beginning of the French Revolution, and Moreau was called the “General of the Parliament."
After graduating from the University in 1790, Jean Victor receives the title of Bachelor of Law. But according to the received specialty, it doesn’t work even a day, immediately getting into the National Guard as the commander of 2 battalions. Then he is transferred to the gunners, where after a while he becomes a captain. And on September 11, 1791, Jean Moreau became already a lieutenant colonel, commander of the 1st battalion of the National Guard D'Ile-y-Villen.
Career start in the Northern Army
As the biography testifies, Jean Victor Moreau begins his military activity in the Northern Army under the banner of Commander Jean Charles Pishegru. He shows himself to be a very gifted officer, and in 1793 he was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 30, by one order with the twenty-four-year-old Napoleon.
In 1794, Jean Victor became commander in chief of the Northern Army, just after France conquered Holland. The news of the execution of his father almost leads Moro to thoughts of desertion, but the commander leaves them.
Already being appointed commander of the Rhine-Moselle army, Moreau, along with Dese and Saint-Cyr, gained a number of high-profile victories in Germany. Despite this, the campaign was ended by the withdrawal of the French troops, the famous forty-day retreat through the swamps to the Rhine, which could save many lives of French soldiers.
Despite all his many successes in command in 1797, Jean Moreau was removed from the army and dismissed. The reason was the accusation of General Pishegru of treason against the Directory. A friend and commander was sent into exile outside France.
Italian army and battles against Suvorov
As the biography testifies, General Jean Victor Moreau returned to military service in 1798, having been drafted into the Italian army, becoming the first assistant to the commander-in-chief of the army, General Scherer.
Upon learning that A.V. Suvorov himself will be his opponent, Barthelemy Louis Joseph Scherer is leaving the army, leaving the entire campaign on the shoulders of General Moreau. But he, too, could not resist the genius of Suvorov, who was smashing the French armies at Novi and on the Adda River. Suvorov spoke very approvingly about his opponent, saying that he "understands him well." At the same time, Jean Moreau paid tribute to the military genius of the Russian field marshal.
Moreau retreats to the Riviera, where he is replaced by General Joubert. But when Joubert dies, he again becomes the head of the Italian army and leads her to Genoa. There he transfers command to Jean Etienne Vacheux and leaves for Paris, where he is to take command of the Rhine Army, but it has already been given to General Claude-Jacques Lekurb.
Relations Moro and Napoleon
At that time, a revolutionary change in the power of the Directory to the power of the Consulate was being prepared in Paris. What was missing was only who could become the Consul of France. This role was offered to Jean Moreau. But the illustrious general was very far from politics and, in response, proposed the candidacy of Bonaparte, who had just fled from Egypt, who he actively supported.
General Jean Victor Moreau (photo in the article) actively participated in the change of power on November 9, 1799: by arresting the most active members of the Directory and taking the Luxembourg Palace into cordon, he ensures the success of the coup.
For his actions and help, Moreau received a “reward" as the commander-in-chief of the Rhine Army and was immediately sent away from Paris to Germany. There, the general wins a brilliant victory at Hohenlinden. This adds to his popularity in Paris, but relations with the First Consul become even more tense. What contributes to the failure of Bonaparte at Marengo, which only thanks to the timely actions of Dese did not turn into a defeat. Since General Dese died in this battle, Napoleon appropriated his merits, but the army, and with it the whole public, is well aware of the current state of affairs. Against this background, Moro’s victory looks even more convincing and bright.
In addition, having married Eugenie Hulot d'Oserie in 1800, Moreau further rebuilt Napoleon against himself, refusing him twice when he married other girls to his general, including his stepdaughter Ortans de Boarnais. Bonaparte did not like either Eugenie or her mother, Jeanne Hulot. They belonged to the type of women whom the First Consul did not tolerate.
But on the part of Jean Victor Moreau, it really was a marriage of love, and not by calculation, since the d'Azeri family had no weight in Parisian politics. Shortly after the marriage, General Moreau again departed for the theater of war.
Conspiracy against Napoleon
According to information contained in historical sources, Jean Victor Moreau did not hide his attitude to Napoleon Bonaparte. He was not shy in expressions, expressing his attitude to the self-proclaimed emperor, and did not even accept the order of the Legion of Honor granted to him. All that was said by Jean Victor, of course, immediately came to the emperor who adored spies. The emperor did not like all this, which the general, of course, guessed, but was sure that his popularity in the army would not allow the Corsican to do anything with him.
Moreau retired from the service and, having settled in his estate of Grobois, also moved away from politics. However, the rule of Napoleon did not suit many French. Georges Cardual, who had read Moreau as the seat of the First Consul, even organized an assassination attempt on Bonaparte. A mediator between the head of the rebels Cardual and Moreau volunteered to be once exiled from France, but secretly returning to Paris, Pishegru. But Jean Victor did not participate in this ridiculous conspiracy, which did not prevent his arrest when the conspiracy was uncovered.
The French general Jean Victor Moreau was arrested among the first, he was charged with the fact that he was aware of the conspiracy, but did not tell where he should be. Pishegru was arrested the second, who, despite torture, did not admit anything, and after a little more than a month he was found strangled with his own tie in his own cell. True, they did not believe that this was done by Pishegru himself. Among the latter, Cardual was arrested, who admitted everything in court and took all the blame. He was executed in the summer of 1804.
According to the biography, Jean Victor Moreau was sentenced to two years in prison, but Bonaparte did not like the sentence. The emperor was counting on the death penalty, but the specially assembled composition of the judges could not be found, for which it would be possible to execute the illustrious commander, and the imprisonment was replaced by exile.
Life in the United States
The former general was expelled from France the very day after the verdict was announced. When he crossed the border with Spain, his wife and children voluntarily joined him. Jean Victor Moreau spent some time trying to somehow resolve the issue of property. On July 5, 1805, the Moreau family arrives in the United States.
In the States, they purchase an apartment on Warren Street in New York, which is used for living in the winter. For the rest of the year, Moreau resides in Philadelphia on the small Morrisville estate.
President Jefferson welcomes the disgraced commander very cordially and even offers him to lead schools where future military men are trained. But Jean Moreau refuses and retires to his estate to hunt, fish and engage in other pleasures of exiled life.
But the life of the former French general in exile was not easy and not cloudless. In 1807 he received the news that his sister Margarita had died, and in 1808, Madame Hulot, his mother-in-law, was dying. In the same year, the only son Eugene, who remained in France, dies.
In 1812, with the permission of the emperor, the seriously ill wife of Jean Victor Moreau returned with his daughter Isabelle to France. In the same year, the Morrisville estate burns down, through the fault of an unknown person on a horse, as the locals described it.
Return to Europe
In addition to Moreau, in the United States there were a large number of French sent to exile. With many of them, the disgraced general maintained relations. In 1811, his adjutant and friend, Colonel Dominic Rapatel, on the advice of Jean Victor arranged to serve in the Russian troops.
In 1813, the Rapator, at the request of Alexander I, initiated a correspondence with Jean Victor, in which he invited the former French general to fight against the usurper Bonaparte at the head of an army of captured French.
In addition to the proposal of the Russian monarch, Moreau wanted to see in Europe General Bernadotte, a former comrade in the republican opposition, and now Karl Johan, the Swedish crown prince. Hatred of Bonaparte and frankly dull existence alone encourages the general to decide to return to Europe, and together with Pavel Svinyin (better known as military attache Paul de Schevennen) left the US on the high-speed ship Hannibal June 25, 1813 of the year.
Already on July 27, a ship with General Moreau aboard moored in Gothenburg. Upon arrival, Jean Victor learns that the army of captured French could not be formed. Most refused to fight against their homeland, despite the highly controversial figure of Napoleon at the head.
The death of General Moreau
Moreau was about to go back to America, since he did not intend to go at the head of an army consisting of non-French people. He was so sick of fighting against his country. But Alexander I offers him the position of adviser to the three kings.
Jean Moreau agrees to this proposal, but does not accept any ranks, although Alexander Pavlovich wanted to immediately give him the rank of Field Marshal in the Allied Army. Upon Moro's arrival, a festive dinner was organized at the location of the Russian emperor in honor of his arrival, where Alexander I represents Bonaparte's former general and opponent of the power to the allied Prussian and Austrian monarchs.
General Moreau accompanied Alexander I on August 27 in the battle of Dresden, where he advised the Russian emperor to be a little behind, and was mortally wounded.
Moreau was quickly taken out of the theater of operations and the life doctor did everything possible by amputating both legs, which were partly torn off by the ill-fated core. Jean Victor Marie Moreau died on September 2 in Laun. Under him was Pavel Svinin. He painted a dying portrait of a general.
Posthumous honors
After Alexander I was informed of the death of General Moreau, he wrote a letter to his widow with regrets and condolences, to which is attached a lump sum payment of a million rubles. Subsequently, the Russian emperor asked Louis XVIII, who in 1814 awarded Moro the posthumous rank of Marshal, and his wife, as the widowed wife of the Marshal, a pension of 12 thousand francs.
In the place where General Moreau died, Alexander I ordered to put an obelisk in memory of the famous commander. They buried Jean Moreau in present-day St. Petersburg in the Catholic Church of St. Catherine. On the day of the funeral, the fallen general received Field Marshal honors. From the opposite end of the famous Nevsky Prospect, on which the church stands, is the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where A.V. Suvorov is buried.